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IFUT wins long-running Maynooth staff pension dispute

A long running pension dispute involving three staff in Maynooth University pension scheme has been resolved following ongoing pressure by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT).

The rights of the staff to reimbursement for denial of pension rights, following their redeployment to Maynooth subsequent to closure of Carysfort College of Education in 1988, were accepted by the college, in advance of a High Court hearing on the matter.

IFUT argued that the University contravened the terms of its own Pension Scheme by making unwarranted pension deductions from the staff involved and that, despite protest, it had persisted in doing so.

Redeployed staff had been denied access to all promotional opportunity. An IFUT Working Party, set up in 1998 to address the problem, included Maynooth based Séamus Mac Gabhann as Convenor. The Working Party persuaded the government of the day to end the discrimination.

In November 1999 then Minister for Education, Micheal Martin, sanctioned that redeployed staff would be accorded the right to apply for promotion in their respective universities.

In order to be eligible to apply for promotion, however, redeployed staff first had to join the pension funds of their different universities. The government voted the necessary funding to compensate university pension funds for the full and fair integration of the redeployed staff., a requirement to make these staff eligible.

Resolution of issues involving the three Maynooth staff had remained intractable since 2001 and IFUT eventually issued High Court legal proceedings on the matter.

IFUT General Secretary, Joan Donegan, has welcomed resolution of the long running dispute.

“It was always crystal clear to IFUT that the rights of these three staff were being denied. I would like to thank in particular Working Group Convenor, Seamus McGabhann, for his long-term commitment to this issue and the dedication of former IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, which ensured that a positive outcome was achieved,” Joan Donegan said.